Men's tennis will compete at ECAC Championships

After a highly successful fall campaign and start to its winter season, the No. 40 men’s tennis team is headed to Hanover, N.H., to compete in an eight-team field at ECAC Championships this weekend.

The Light Blue enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed, despite being ranked No. 24 in the most recent CTO/MDTA Division I Men’s Coaches Poll—a 25-team poll in which Harvard, the No. 1 seed at ECACs, remains unranked.

“We’ve been playing well up until now, but we haven’t beaten Harvard yet. It’s right that they are the No. 1 seed, and I actually like it that way,” Columbia head coach Bid Goswami said.

Although Columbia enters the tournament ranked behind the Crimson, the Ivy champions for two years running, the Lions boast the highest-ranked singles player in the tournament—junior Winston Lin, ranked No. 8 nationally—as well as the top doubles team of juniors Ashok Narayana and Max Schnur, ranked No. 14 in the nation.

“They have been playing at a high level,” Goswami said. “That’s why those guys are ranked so high. Max and Ashok are a good No. 14, and Winston is a very legitimate No. 8.”

Goswami said that he thinks his team stands a good chance of taking the tournament, but that he wants to remain focused on the year’s main goal.

“It’d be nice to get the win here, and we’re starting to play pretty well,” he said. “But I think it’s not the end of the world if we don’t win this weekend. If anyone asked me whether I wanted to win here or the Ivies, I would say the Ivies. That’s what we play for.”

The Lions will hit the courts at Dartmouth on Saturday at 9 a.m. when they take on No. 7 seed Princeton. Play continues through Monday.